AC 198 - Peace Shattered
by AceRayer
Summary: Rated R for probably swearing later on, just kinda to give me some room to move. Also Mobile Suit related fights and such.
1. The Fuse Lit

Author's Note: Ace Rayer is my own personal character, (duh, just look at my penname) but I don't own any of the others, unless I decide to make some up later on. I don't own Gundam Wing (though I WISH I did), or any of the characters, so suing me would not only be pointless, but I also have no money to speak of. Hah. Okey dokey, on to the fic.  
  
  
  
The year is After Colony 198. Peace still reigns throughout the Earth sphere, which has expanded to include the planet Mars. The Kronos Corporation, based on mars, is the primary source of Neo – Titanium, a main element used in the creation of shuttles, which comes from their extensive mining operation on Mars. The five former Gundam pilots have "retired" to the colonies. Duo Maxwell, one-time pilot of Gundam Deathscythe, went back to the L2 cluster and restarted his salvage operation, with the help of his girlfriend, Hilde Schbeiker. Trowa Barton, once pilot of Gundam Heavyarms, went back to L3 to re-join the circus with his sister. Quatre Rebarba Winner, ex-pilot of Gundam Sandrock, went to L4 to take over the family business, Winner Corporation, which is a leading shuttle manufacturer, along with all 29 of his sisters. Chang WuFie, retired pilot of Gundam Altron, is still in the Preventers, along with Zechs Merquise, Lucrezia Noin, and Sally Po. Only Heero Yuy, former pilot of Wing Gundam Zero, didn't return to some sort of a home, choosing instead to remain at Relena Peacecraft's side, as an impromptu bodyguard. The Preventers, meanwhile, have been sent to Mars, investigating reports of brutality towards the Kronos miners.  
  
In the new Earth Sphere United Nation capitol, London, Vice Foreign Minister Relena Dorlian, formerly Relena Peacecraft, was meeting with the President of ESUN. She had just come from a rather heated (on her side at least) argument with Heero, telling him to stay away from her, and to stop "protecting" her, something she thought would make her seem like a hypocrite, preaching total pacifism and meanwhile having her own private bodyguard. Unfortunately, she couldn't have picked a worse time for the argument. The meeting was nothing special, nothing more important than the routine, taxes, crime, the latest on the rebuilding of the property damage that had been caused from the Mariemaya Army's attack two years before, which was rather substantial. A soldier dressed all in the colors of the Earth Sphere Alliance, the ruling government of earth and the colonies prior to the OZ revolution, which was a near total brown, with a darker brown helmet and various designs depending on rank, stepped into the room. One of the black-clad bodyguards moved toward him to question him on his business in the room, when the bodyguard fell flat on the ground. Relena spun toward the door, wondering what was happening.  
  
"Who are you, and what in the world are you doing he-" Relena was cut of by the man grabbing her by the arms and her mouth, the man who had sneaked behind her, the man wearing the same uniform, ESA brown, as the other ten or twelve people in the room, subduing the bodyguards or the President.  
  
"Don't worry miss Dorlian, you'll soon find out," the man said, not greatly encouraging Relena's hopes as he raised a remote detonator in one hand, pushing down the button.  
  
Heero was about two blocks away, in a hotel that he had rented during his stay in London, when he heard the explosion. He swiftly turned toward the source of the noise, which was, to his dismay, the ESUN capitol building.  
  
"Re-…. Relena…" The former mobile suit pilot dashed out the door, sprinting at full tilt toward the ESUN building.  
  
One day later, rescue workers were still sorting through the wreckage of the ruined capitol. No sign had been found of Vice Foreign Minister Dorlian's body, but the President had been located, badly injured, but miraculously alive. The news reports said he was at the local military hospital, under critical condition, and no guess was yet made about his ability to pull through. Zechs Merquise, formerly known as Milliardo Peacecraft, now known only as Preventer Wind, except to his new wife Noin, who insisted on calling him Zechs, turned off the television with a mixture of disgust and grief, grief at knowing that his sister Relena was likely dead, and that he could do nothing about it, disgust at the detachment that the newscasters seemed to show at the tragedy. Noin and Zechs were on their way back from Mars, toward earth to help out wherever they could in the aftermath of the still blameless attack on ESUN. They were already past the L5 colony cluster, and going to earth at full throttle, when the proximity alarms flared up.  
  
"What the?" Zechs looked out the view port, but saw no passing shuttle. Then he looked in the rear monitors and saw something that he thought he never would again. Two bright blue flashes that could signify nothing other than the vernier engines of mobile suits. He quickly checked their make, and was astonished at the results. The second mobile suit, the one slightly behind the other, was none other than the Altron Gundam, WuFei's old Gundam. He quickly checked the other suit, but just wound up even more confused. It was a new model, made of gundamiam alloy, making it a new, previously unknown and possibly nonexistent, Gundam. The new suit was all black and gray, and had the distinctive head with V crest of a Gundam, but had was painted all black, and seemed to take more after Zechs' own Tallgeese than a Gundam in physical characteristics. It had the large beam/buster transforming cannon on its right shoulder, the two huge vernier engines on the back, and the bulky body and legs of Zechs' favored old suit. However, the shield was far different. It looked more like the shield on Quatre's Sandrock, if somewhat elongated, and painted black and gray, like the rest of the suit. The new suit's eyes are what clinched it though. The eyes shone a faint green, the same color that all Gundam's eyes showed when it was activated. Zechs quickly hailed the passing Gundams, focusing on the first, knowing WuFei wasn't likely to reply anyway.  
  
"This is Preventer Wind, hailing unknown mobile suit, identify yourself immediately." The response came quickly, and, thankfully, wasn't a threat, but Zechs didn't find the words reassuring at all.  
  
"This is the Gundam Shadowhawk, Zechs Merquise, I was wondering when I'd run into you. You'd best follow me if you want to get back at the people responsible for Miss Relena's death." Zechs was stunned into silence by the pilot's words. "Oh, by the way, you'd best bring Tallgeese, they're equipped with Taurus mobile suits. And please, hurry it up already." Zechs had no choice but to comply.  
  
Barely three minutes later, Tallgeese pulled up next to the new Gundam, Shadowhawk.  
  
"About time Zechs, now, you ready to fight, or are you a little rusty?"  
  
"Before I do anything more, I need to know who you are pilot, or rather, who both of you are, and how you come to possess two Gundams."  
  
"Fine, the Altron's pilot is Chang WuFei, whom I believe you know, and my name is Lieutenant Ace Rayer." 


	2. Joining the Battle

Author's Note: Blah blah, I don't own Gundam Wing, don't sue me, don't send gangsters who are on your payroll to beat me up because I used your characters, because I'm saying I don't own 'em and I bruise real easy. 'Kay, that's done.  
  
  
  
Duo slumped into his chair, completely exhausted. Never, he thought, let anyone, especially your girlfriend, tell you that running a junkyard would be easy. The paperwork, the endless streams of hobos that you had to chase out, it was just the pits. Though, for the pros list, he did get a lot more time with Hilde now. Duo smiled to himself, flipping on the TV. Yeah, living and working with Hilde was great. Especially since the war was over. Then he caught the news.  
  
"Early this morning, hopes for peace were shattered by a blast in the Earth Sphere United Nations capitol building," Duo couldn't believe what the reporter was saying, an explosion? At the ESUN capitol building? It was too much, the war was over, and there had been an explosion?  
  
"Search and rescue teams are still trying to ascertain the cause of the blast, but it seems to have come from this area," the reporter gestured towards an unidentifiable pile of rubble, "which used to be the central meeting room for the top United Nation leaders. At this time, no information is known on casualties, though near hundreds are presumed to be dead, including Vice Foreign Minister Relena Dorlain, whos body was not found, but was expected to be in that room at the time the bomb went off." At that, Duo nearly stopped breathing. Relena was dead? That was the hardest to swallow of all, of course she was a high profile target, but of all the people for this to happen to…. He almost never talked to Heero, but he'd managed to get in contact with him, the guy was about as unreadable as ever, but when Relena was brought up…. Duo knew that those two had a lot of future together, assuming he'd ever admit it, but now…. Just then, Hilde entered the room, having caught the story on the TV in their shared bedroom.  
  
"Duo… do you think…" she started to speak, then trailed off uncertainly.  
  
"I dunno, Hilde… but they said that they couldn't find her… maybe Heero stopped her from going in, and he's just hiding her… or maybe…" now it was Duo's turn to trail off. He was typically known for his optimism, but he knew it couldn't be possible this time. And if this were meant to start a war, then the ESUN would be helpless, all the Gundams, hell, all the mobile suits, were destroyed, not just sent off to the sun in an asteroid this time, but honest to God destroyed. He'd been there himself to see it, and if someone wanted to start something now…. I don't know what I'd do, Duo thought to himself, if a war started up again… I don't know if I could fight….  
  
Zechs glared through Tallgeeses monitor at the new Gundam, Shadowhawk. "Lieutenant? Lieutenant of what, the ESUN has no military, the Preventers don't use military ranks, what are you talking about?" And how would he know about who killed Relena?  
  
"Lieutenant of the Dragon's Claw organization, I'm here to get you and the rest of the Gundam pilots, we've got serious trouble," the voice came back to him over the intercom, sounding weary, probably of having to explain himself to WuFie, who Zechs knew by personal experience could be very untrusting. Other than that though, the voice sounded a bit youthful, probably only a few years younger than Zechs himself, who was 21 now.  
  
"Dragon's Claw? How come I've never heard of that before?" Zechs asked, instantly untrusting of this new pilot. As a rule, he didn't trust secret organizations.  
  
The new pilot sighed, "the Dragon's Claw is an organization dedicated to the safekeeping of the Earth Sphere United Nation, acting and founded independantly from said nation, and without that nations knowledge of it's existance. Until now, that is," Ace finished off, sounding as though he had just recited part of a training manual.  
  
"And how is it that you know who attacked Relena, not even the Preventers have been able to figure that out yet and they started looking as soon as reports of the attack went out," Zechs unconsciously clenched a fist as he spoke, the mere mention of Relena's supposed death nearly sent him over the edge.  
  
"Simple, we knew the group existed previous to yesterday's attack, we'd been keeping watch over that group for about a year, and, though we missed the actual move on the ESUN capitol, we're dead certain that they were responsible,"  
  
"Then who was it?"  
  
"Come with us and you'll find out soon enough. Rayer out," Abruptly, the Lieutenant broke the communication link and increased it's speed toward the L4 Colony cluster.  
  
Quatre sat in his chair, staring absently down at the papers in front of him. He knew that he had work to do still, but he just couldn't. Not after news like that. Relena, dead…. Every time he thought about it, he nearly collapsed from grief. She'd been a good person, nearly the only good person who had come out of the war, and now…. Quatre suddenly looked up at the sound of his phone ringing like it was going to fly off the hook. Sighing sadly, Quatre picked it up, barely able to speak, "Hello?" his secretary answered on the other end.  
  
"Three people are here to see you, Mr. Winner, one of them is calling himself Chang WuFie,"  
  
"Send them up now, as soon as you can!" Quatre nearly screamed the words. If WuFie was here, that meant he had something important to say, WuFie had been out of touch since the end of the war, and wasn't very personal anyway, he'd use the phone or E-mail if it was something that he trusted, but if he was here in person, that meant he had something extremely important. He heard running steps outside his door, and the sounds of someone being pushed, or rather, knocked, to the ground as the doors of his office burst open, Chang WuFie running up to his desk.  
  
"Quatre, you need to come with us, now," Quatre blinked. WuFie was never one for politeness, but this was downright strange, bursting into his office like he was being chased… and then, Quatre noticed the other two people who were facing in either direction down the hallways leading to his office. One of them was Zechs Merquise, and the other one he didn't know, and only had time to register the fact that he was wearing all black, black leather jacket, black pants, black boots, black shirt under the jacket, black fingerless gloves, and a black hat on his head, a strand of spiky brown hair hanging down over his eyes, before Quatre noticed that they were both holding pistols, and had started firing.  
  
They had managed to get to Quatre's building fast enough, but they'd been tailed. A black, unmarked car had followed them the whole way, and they couldn't waste any time in getting to Quatre's office, so when they finally did, they decided to just have WuFie kick in the door and talk to Quatre, while Ace and Zechs covered the hallway. That's when the brown- suited soldiers rushed down the hallway at them, carrying assault rifles. Zechs recognized the uniforms immediately, United Earth Sphere Alliance uniforms, the group that OZ had infiltrated at the start of the war, and that meant they were part of the group that Ace had called the "Global Insurgence," a group that meant to re-establish the rule of the UESA over Earth and the colonies. That meant they were the ones who attacked Relena. Gripping that thought like a life preserver, Zechs opened fire on the charging soldiers, shooting to kill. Behind him, Ace was doing the same, and WuFie was yelling at them.  
  
"Get in here you two!" Zechs and Ace wasted no time, throwing themselves into the room, diving over Quatre's upturned desk, using it for cover as WuFie joined them, all three popping up from behind the impromptu shield to fire at their enemies. Quatre, meanwhile, was trying to get a signal on the phone, but was receiving nothing but busy signals.  
  
"Don't even bother, Mr. Winner, they'll have the lines cut!" Ace yelled, pausing to slap another clip into his pistol.  
  
"Then what are we supposed to do?" Quatre yelled, obviously shocked at the infiltration of his, supposedly secure, building. Ace could definitely relate, the whole business with the bombing was more than shocking, even to him, and he hadn't expected to have picked up a tail so soon. Must be getting rusty, he thought. He smirked to himself, then popped up from behind the desk again, shooting at the apparently endless supply of brown-suited idiots with machine guns, managing to catch at least two of them in the chest. However, he soon had to retreat down as the enemies opened fire once more with the assault rifles.  
  
"To answer your question, Mr. Winner, we wait!" Ace yelled, cursing as a piece of the desk blew off next to his head, their little shield was getting a little weaker.  
  
"Wait? Wait for what?" Quatre yelled. He was, to put it mildly, pissed. All this was happening all around him and he couldn't do a thing. If there was one thing he hated most in his life, it was feeling useless, which was precisely how he felt right now. Ace didn't even have to respond, as the hallway outside of Quatre's apartment exploded, smoke and fire blasting out, obscuring the sight of the enemy soldiers. Quatre barely had the time to be surprised, before something even more amazing happened. The trademark head of a Gundam appeared outside his window, the blue color and make of the mobile suit instantly identifying it as Heavyarms, and the only person that Quatre knew who could pilot that suit well enough to make a shot like that was Trowa Barton.  
  
Inside Gundam Heavyarms, Trowa almost smiled, seeing Quatre again. It had been years since they'd seen eachother in person, and it was always good to see the golden-haired pilot. Even in circumstances like this. Out of the corner of one eye, Trowa glimpsed the warning light that signified oncoming enemies. Mobile suit enemies, which wasn't good, they were in a colony, and Trowa's Heavyarms suit wasn't exactly known for it's prescision firing. This would be quite the trick, taking that suit out inside a colony without damaging the surroundings. Trowa knew he could probably pull it off, but there was the rather large risk of whatever suit it turned out to be firing wildly…. Heavyarms turned to face the new attacker, and Trowa was, only mildly, surprised by the model. A brown-painted Taurus suit, carrying a rather hefty and damaging beam cannon, which was pointed directly at him. If the other pilot decided he wanted to fire, which was looking pretty likely, then he had two choices, either allow Heavyarms to be hit, which he could only really do for so long, or dodge, while the beam punched a hole dead through the colony wall. Having no options, Trowa hit the comm button on his mobile suit console.  
  
"Well, you appear to have me pinned down." Trowa said, completely calmly.  
  
"Yeah, kiddo, that I do, so you'd best open up that cockpit and tell your friends in that building to come out, before I blast either you or this colony to smithereens!" The other pilot sounded pretty angry. Then, without warning, the right hand of Trowa's Heavyarms suit, not having the double-gatling guns mounted on it, swung around to it's back, coming out holding a beam sabre. There had been a few modifications to Trowa's suit when it was rebuilt by the Dragon's Claw, one of which was melee weapons. Trowa enjoyed the other modification, increased vernier output, as the suit flew toward the Taurus, swinging the beam sabre towards the Taurus's midsection. Trowa scarcely had the time to blink before he was past the enemy suit, Heavyarms' feet landing heavily to a stop, the Taurus suit blasting up in an explosion from the lethal beam sabre slice. Heavyarms de- activated the sabre and re-holstered it, turning once again to face the building, in time to see Ace, Zechs, WuFie, and Quatre running out of the Winner building, racing towards the Colony's hangar bay. Trowa, with the use of his suit, could definitely get there faster, so without hesitation, he blasted off for the hanger, ready to take down any enemy suit that he could find.  
  
Ace ran for the hangar with the others, totally aware that they were pretty exposed out in the public, and not caring, because speed was what they needed. He hadn't expected the GI to attack so soon, in fact, he expected to not even have been noticed by them up until now. Trowa's Heavyarms suit flew past them, already heading toward the hanger, as he noticed a major flaw in his plan. There was absolutely no real way to get Quatre off the colony with this sort of time constraint. They had expected to come to warn him, leave Zechs, WuFie, and Trowa with him and go get the rebuilt Sandrock suit to have Quatre pilot off the colony. The only thing they currently had for transportation was Shadowhawk, Tallgeese, Heavyarms, and Altron, and Quatre riding along with one of them on a combat flight… it would be tricky, but that was their only option right now….  
  
The four pilots barely managed to make it to the hangar, Quatre jumping into Trowa's suit, which had the best armor on it, and therefore, offered the best protection to Quatre if things got tough. Which, Zechs mused, they almost certainly would. He powered up the Tallgeese, switching the weapons systems on, turning Tallgeese toward the airlock doors. As soon as they opened, they'd probably have to come out firing. Well, that was just another challenge, then. He was confident he could take it, especially if these were the same people who killed Relena. He gripped Tallgeese's controls tightly, grimly glaring out at the airlock doors. Just let them try to stop him. 


End file.
